Monday, June 19, 2017

Abu-Dhabi based investment and development company Mubadala is hoping to finalize a deal to buy the remaining 50 per cent of the Viceroy Hotel Group "within a matter a days".

The UAE firm is in talks with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for the 50 per cent stake owned by Jho Low, a financier linked by prosecutors to Malaysia's 1MDB corruption scandal, said a report in Financial Times.

The Abu Dhabi fund already owns 50 per cent of Viceroy, while the other half is controlled by Low and affiliates that purchased rights to and interests in the hotel group with funds from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the newspaper said.

US prosecutors filed complaints on Thursday to recover $540 million in assets allegedly purchased with funds stolen from 1MDB, it said.

US authorities are seeking to seize a total of about $1.7 billion in assets that it says were bought with misappropriated money from the 1MDB.

The proceeds of the sale, if agreed by Low, would be placed into an escrow account frozen by the DoJ, the report said.